


Options

by Cait_frost_11



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Gen, Post-Finale, Sad, Slow Burn, Sorry?, im a terrible person, im breaking my promises of fluff only, nothing happy at all, post season 5 finale
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-08
Updated: 2017-10-16
Packaged: 2018-11-10 21:41:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 17
Words: 12,427
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11135238
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cait_frost_11/pseuds/Cait_frost_11
Summary: Oliver travels back to Lian Yu in search of his family and friends, and he finds Thea on death's door, but no one else is in view. He rushes back to the Star City General Hospital, only to be haunted by the words that he was given years ago when his sister was on death's door yet again. Oliver calls the only person he can think of: Roy.He heads back to the island to find the rest of his friends, and makes a desperate attempt to save the life he had before and put things back as normal as they could be.





	1. Thea

**Author's Note:**

> So here I am yet again writing angst when I promised fluff after the traumatic finales, but I swear I'm working on fluff. 
> 
> Also--school is officially out for the summer!! So I promise hat I'll be working on my chapter fics as quickly as possible.
> 
> *I'll be updating the tags as I add characters*

Scattered remains and debris floated around the boat that sped toward the island. The land was still smoldering, building up the huge knot in Oliver's stomach with knowledge that he may not be able to find what he was looking for. 

He was looking for his friends, his family. At least some confirmation of their deaths. Something to clear the nagging possibility that they could still be out there. 

Oliver weaved in and out of the floating tree branches and clumped piles of dirt. He got as close as he could to the scattered land, and waded to the shore. Even with his experience on rough terrain, Oliver had trouble navigating the island. Nothing looked the same as it had when he spent years of hell on Lian Yu, and the paths were unfamiliar and somewhat daunting. 

Through the smoldering tree trunks and torn up dirt he walked, desperately looking around the land for signs of his friends and family. Oliver had tried to contact Felicity and the others with the comm links, but he got nothing but static from the other end. The comms were either broken, or there was no one to hear his calls.

The sight of blood splattered on the ground ahead of him made his stomach flip in a sick, almost excited sort of way. It was the sign he had been looking for, that there was someone he needed nearby. He followed the trail the best he could, and a few feet later he found a small bloody hand peering out from under a pile of dirt and ash. Terrified he would find it disconnected from its owner, he slowly knelt down by it and looked for something connected to it. He dug up the form underneath to reveal the familiar body of his baby sister. 

"Thea!" he sobbed, begging her to wake. Begging her to open her lively green-brown eyes. "Please, Thea."

He scrambled to the side of her neck for a pulse, and burst into a fresh batch of sobs, these of panicked relief, when he found the faintest beat beneath his middle and forefingers. It was weak, almost gone. He could tell she had lost too much blood from the patches scattered across the surrounding area and the ever growing puddle of red beneath her. She needed a hospital. Fast.

Oliver jumped up, running as far away from Thea as he dared, running a frantic search for anyone else in the close proximity. 

No one. Not a trace.

His mind was torn. Should he keep looking for the others and risk losing his baby sister, or save Thea and give up the chance of saving anyone else left behind on the island. 

Felicity. 

His first thought was Felicity. And then of John. If they were out there and still alive but died because he couldn't find them, what would he do? But if he found them and they were already dead, or he never found them, and Thea died because of it, he would never forgive himself for that either. 

Oliver wiped the renegade tears from his eyes and turned back to his sister, scooping her up into his arms. He would come back for the others.

He couldn't lose his baby sister.

Carrying Thea back to the boat he had taken there, he sped through the water and to the other side of the island where a plane was waiting to carry him home. He did his best to clean all the dirt and mud from her skin, and poured cool water over the burns from the explosions. Begging the pilot to fly faster. Distracting himself doing anything to keep his mind off Felicity, John, Curtis, Quentin, and the others he left behind in the ruble. 

The doctors and nurses of Star City General hospital rushed into action when he came through the doors of the emergency room carrying Thea the way he had carried Laurel in only a year before. 

He tried not to think of that night, promising himself that this would be different. That Thea would be fine. But Laurel was supposed to be fine, and Oliver couldn't help but think about how that turned out that night. 

He was pushed from the emergency room where Thea was lying on the table, the life slowly slipping away from reach. 

The doctors banished him to the hallway where he could only sit and wonder what he should do. What he could do. At first he thought to call someone to let them know what happened, the way he had when she was stabbed by Ra's al Ghul three years ago. He thought to tell their friends, their family, people who he cared about and who cared for her in return. Then he realized that everyone who fell into that category was on the island, in the explosion. There was no one left. Everyone was gone.

Everyone, except for Roy Harper.

Oliver pulled out his phone and found Roy's contact in the list, but hesitated with his finger hovering over the call button. He briefly wondered if he should just let Roy go, keep living his life without the pain from his past. But he knew that he would want to hear about Thea after everything they had been through together, so he tapped the screen and held the dialing phone up to his ear to wait for an answer. 

Oliver almost backed out and hung up, but Roy picked up on the other end and he knew it was too late. 

"Hey, Oliver. What's up?" Roy answered. "Missed me too much?" He joked. 

Oliver cleared his throat and tried not to let his voice crack. "Roy."

The humor disappeared from Roy's voice. "What happened?" 

"Have you heard of the Throwing Star Killer in Star City?"

"Yeah, it was a whole story about how he turned out to be in your office." Roy gave a half hearted laugh. "You need to run better background checks on your guys." Then he grew serious again. "So what happened? Is everyone okay?"

"No," Oliver choked out. "No one's okay."

Roy went silent on the other end of the line.

"Chase kidnapped Felicity, John, and Thea, the new recruits--Curtis, Rene, and Dinah-- and he took my son and his mother. He brought them all to Lian Yu and I followed. He tried to make me kill him because he had a dead man switch so that when he died the whole island would blow up. With everyone on it. But then when I refused to kill him, he shot himself in the head, setting off the switch. My son and I were off the island at this point, but no one else was."

"They're all gone."

"No, not all of them. Not yet," Oliver said, bringing Roy's hope up the tiniest bit. "I went back there to see if there was anyone still alive, or at least a body for confirmation. I found Thea."

Roy's heart lept. "Oh, my gosh thank god. Is she okay?"

"Roy, I don't think she's going to make it."

"Where is she?"

"She's in the emergency room of Star City General, but it isn't looking good, Roy." Oliver broke down, his composure vanished. "Roy, what am I going to do? There's nothing let that I can use to bring her back like the last two times. And even if the pit were still working, there's the bloodlust. It's the same way as last time; the person who killed her is already dead so there is no cure for the bloodlust. It drove her mad last time, I couldn't do that to her again. But, Roy, I can't lose her."

"I'm coming now. I'm already driving to the train station and I will get there as soon as I can. Wait there with Thea until I get there, and then you need to pick yourself up and go look for the others," Roy instructed. 

Oliver nodded, forgetting that Roy couldn't see him through the phone. "I'm gonna go, the doctor is coming out." 

He hung up, and turned to the doctor expectantly. Hoping for good news; that she was going to be okay, that she would wake up in a few hours, that everything would go back to normal, but he knew that that was unreasonable. 

The doctor shook her head, confirming his worst fears. "We did the best we could under the circumstances, but her injuries were extensive." Oliver flashed back to two years before when she was killed by Ra's. The doctor said the same thing. It was his curse. His past was his shadow. "We can keep her alive as long as you like, but it may be best to consider other options."

"May I see her?"

The doctor nodded, and Oliver walked into the room where his baby sister lay, only machines standing between her and death. It was just as hard as the first two times he had stood in front of Thea this way, just as hard as it was when he stood here in front of Laurel and Felicity here. But this time there was nothing that could help her. 

It could have been hours, it could have been minutes, time had lost all meaning. Roy finally walked in, and the two friends embraced before Roy straightened up and looked Oliver directly in the eyes. 

"You need to go," he told him. "Find Felicity, find John, find Lance and the new guys, and come back. I'll be here, and I will make sure that they keep Thea on the machines."

"What if all I find are their bodies?" Oliver asked? "Or just parts?" 

They both shuddered at the thought, but kept their faces stoic.

"Then you'll know that there was nothing you could have done to help them. If you don't you'll never know if there was any way you could have saved them. And you'll live with that for life." Roy said. "So go. I'll be here."

Oliver nodded and cast a last gazing look at Thea, and left the room before he could change his mind. 

And once again he found himself heading towards his hell. Purgatory. Hell. Torture. Past. Curse. Death.


	2. Curtis, Samantha

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oliver returns to the island and finds two of the people left there.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry guys. But not everything can end happily ever after.

Oliver flew his plane back again to the island in search of any more survivors of the explosion. Hours of walking in circles brought next to nothing, just piles of dirt, burnt trees, and ashes. 

Finally, when he was about to give up for the night and head back to the plane, he spotted something in the dirt. 

He bent down to pick it up, and his heart dropped. A pair of glasses: half melted and cracked, too broken to see through. At first he thought they belonged to Felicity, but after looking at them closer he realized they were far too big and wide-framed to be hers. 

They were Curtis'. 

He searched the area right around it in search of their owner, and it led him straight to a burnt and bloody form on the ground just a few feet away. 

"No!" He dropped to the hard ground beside Curtis' body and frantically felt for a pulse. 

His fingers found nothing but stillness and cold flesh. He was gone. 

He ran away from the body, stumbling around the ground doing his best not to scream his guilt out loud. 

Yet another, dead just from being a part of his life. 

Oliver found Samantha a few yards away. What was he going to tell William? How could he tell his son that he no longer had a mother? What would happen to his son?

Two deaths confirmed, so many more to still find, and his baby sister slowly dying halfway across the globe. 

Curtis, Samantha, Thea.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I will continue this. No, I won't have an update schedule. Tell me what you think.


	3. John, Quentin, Rene, Dinah, Nyssa, Felicity

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oliver finds more of the family he left behind in the island.

Thea, Curtis, Samantha. 

Three people so far. Dead, or dying. All because of him. Oliver was almost afraid to keep searching, not wanting to know the fates of all the others. 

But he had to continue. 

In the morning he woke with the sun, getting started and trying not to think of the bodies lying on the ground near him. 

He started to head toward the A.R.G.U.S. bunker, wondering why he hadn't thought to look there earlier. It was built to withstand tactically anything, it would be the ideal place to go hide during the explosions. 

He wrenched the door off its hinges, and climbed down the stairs. 

"Hello?" Oliver called. "Isanyone down here?"

"Oliver?" A deep voice echoed through the jail. John came running around the bend of the wall and crashed into the man in an enormous embrace. 

"Oh, my gosh, John!" Oliver exclaimed. "I thought you were all dead! I was so worried! Who else is down here?" All his prior anxieties disappeared for the moment, as he found someone finally alive and well. 

"Oliver," John started. "Curtis and Samantha were still out there when— and Thea, Oliver, she—"

"I know." The grief came flying back. "I found Curtis and Samantha. They didn't make it."

"And Thea—" 

"I found her too. She's in the ICU at Star City General. Roy is with her. She— she isn't doing well. I don't know if—"

John's face fell. "I'm so sorry, Oliver. She was your only family left."

Oliver shook his head gloomily. "Not anymore. You are still alive. I have someone. And now I have William, since he no longer has his mother."

"Oliver?" Nyssa rounded he corner and wrapped him in an embrace, which he returned. 

"I'm glad you're okay," he said, totally sincere despite some of past disagreements. 

"As am I." He could tell from the way that she didn't joke about their marriage that things were not going well with everyone else. 

"Who else is here?" Oliver asked, hoping for everyone else to have made it, but knowing deep in his heart it wasn't probable. 

"C'mon." John and Nyssa led him around the corner to the main area of the prison, where several people were laying out on the ground. It was hard to tell if they were alive or not. They all looked like they had been through hell and back. 

"Oh, my god, Oliver!" Quentin jumped up from leaning against the wall and running over to him. "We thought you were dead!"

"I thought you were dead, too." 

Oliver looked around the bunker, seeing who was there. John, Nyssa, and Quentin he had already seen. He noticed that Evelyn, Talia, and Siren were all missing. Lying across the floor were Rene, Dinah, and Felicity. 

Felicity. 

"Oliver!" She sobbed, relief washing over both of them in waves. 

Oliver ran to her and knelt down by her side. She pulled him in for a kiss without hesitation, and he desperately reciprocated the action. 

"Are you okay?" He asked, looking over her body. She seemed okay; she had lost a lot of weight from being starved—they all did—she was pretty bruised and scraped up, but other then that everything seemed normal. 

"Yeah," she said with a nod. "I'll be fine, what about you?"

"Better, now that I've found you guys."

Oliver stood up and walked over to both Dinah and Rene and woke them up. 

"Hey!" Rene grinned. "You found us!"

"Yeah, I did. Let's get out of here and get back to Star City, you all need to get checked out by doctors."

Oliver started to walked toward the exit, but stopped when he heard Felicity call his name. She was still leaning against the wall, and made no obvious moves to get up. 

"There's something I didn't tell you. When the explosions went off, Chase must have been ultra prepared for anything to happen. He had EMPs set up along with the other explsives," she explained, and Oliver's heart rapidly dropped. "It refried the biostimulant in my spine. I can't walk anymore."

She had the only working prototype. Curtis was the only one who knew how to fix it, but Curtis was dead, so now there would be no one to fix the biostimulant. Felicity likely would never walk again. 

Oliver pushed all that out of his head and knelt down in front of her, with his back to her. 

"Climb on and hold on tight."

She pulled herself into his back and he stood up.

"Alright, let's go," he said to he group. "Follow me, there's room in the plane for all of you, thank god."

They all made their way to the plane and climbed aboard, and as soon as they got there Oliver gave them all the food he had stashed away, as he piloted back to their home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What do you think? No major deaths in this chapter, but poor Felicity!


	4. Thea

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thea hasn't gotten better, but she hasn't gotten worse. Until she does.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woah. Hey there angst train, nice of you to stop by. I can't decide if I want you to stay for a little while or leave as soon as possible.

Back in Star City General Hospital, Roy had been sitting by Thea's bedside for days. The nurse allowed him to stay even after visiting hours, knowing who they both were and their current circumstance. 

Not many regular people in the city knew of the identities of the vigilantes, but a few of the doctors and nurses at Star City General were told because of the injuries that often were too serious to be solved in the bunker. 

He hadn't gone back to his apartment, since it was in Hub City and was too far away. A few times he went to the loft and the bunker, showered, and found some of Oliver's clothes to change into after days of wearing the same thing. 

He couldn't bear to leave Thea, for fear that something might happen while he was gone. For all the time that they spent together, it never felt like it was enough. Now it was likely that he would never get to see her right smile and shining eyes again. 

It had been nearly a week since Oliver had left to look for the others, and Roy was starting to get worried. He knew it was about a day long flight both ways, but it seems to last forever. 

After a while, his cell phone rang in his pocket. He pulled it out to see the caller, and saw Oliver's name as the caller ID. 

"Hey, Oliver," he said as he answered. "Did you find anyone?"

"Yeah, I did."

Relief flooded over Roy, despite the situation they were still trapped in. If anyone at all was okay, there was some good left. 

"Who?"

"I found two bodies. Curtis—one of the recruits— and Samantha—William's mother," Oliver said quietly, the guilt highly evident in his voice. "But I found John, Felicity, Dinah, Rene, Lance, and Nyssa. They're all alive."

"Oh, thank god," Roy exhaled a breathe he didn't realize he had been holding. "You said alive? Not okay?"

"Hey are all really hungry, they've been trapped without supplies for over a week. Other than that and quite a few bruises and cuts, everyone is okay, except Felicity."

Roy was shocked at how calmly Oliver was able to say that. He knew how much Felicity meant to him, even after everything that had happened between the two of them. Roy panicked at just those simple words. 

"What happened? Is she okay? Is se going to make it? She is dying, is she? Do I need to tell one of the doctors that you'll be bringing her in? Should I get them ready?"

"Calm down, Roy. She isn't dying."

Roy took a deep breath. "Okay, I'm good." He slowed down. "So what happened to her?" 

"When Chase rigged the island with explosives, he placed EMTs there too. They fried the biostimulant implant in Felicity's spine. She can't walk without it, and now without Curtis to fix it, I don't think that she'll ever be able to walk again."

"Oh." Roy felt awful for Felicity. He had talked to her shortly after the implant had begun to work, and she was elated that she was able to get back to her normal life. She also expressed to him that she was terrified something would go wrong and her miracle would be snatched away from her. Now it seems her nightmare had come true. 

"How is Thea doing?" Oliver questioned, clearly trying to change the subhead as soon as possible. 

"Exactly the same," Roy answered sadly. "She's still stable, but nothing has improved."

"At least she hasn't gotten worse," Oliver said, shocking Roy with his unusual optimism. 

"Yeah."

"Okay, well I'm going to get going," Oliver said. "We are on our way back. I'll be bringing everyone into the hospital just to get checked. I'll see you soon."

Roy hung up and turned back to Thea. She hadn't moved a millimeter. 

"Please, Thea," he whispered, grading her hand. "I need you to wake up. Oliver is coming back with everyone, and we need you here."

The beeping on the heart monitor suddenly grew frantic, setting off alarms and alerting all the nurses and doctors. They came running into the room and pushed Roy out of their way. 

"Thea!" He screamed hysterically. "Thea, no!"

The doctors started to perform CPR, but a nurse came over with a piece of paper and showed it to the doctors. They stopped their compressions and backed away from the small girl in the bed. 

"What are you doing?" Roy panicked. "She isn't dead yet! She's going into cardiac arrest you can still save her! You need to help her!"

One of the doctors placed a hand on Roy's shoulder. "I'm sorry son, but her file has a do not resuscitate order. We can't do anything."

"What?! There has to be a mistake!" Roy grabbed the paper from his hand. The name at the top read Thea Dearden Queen. That was her. "Who set the order?" They couldn't do this. 

The doctor looked at Roy apologetically and nodded to Thea, who was still seizing on the bed. "She did."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okee dokee guys. Kudos are great, but I love comments! Tell me what you think!
> 
> (And yes, I am a little sorry for this. Actually a lot sorry. But it had to be done.)


	5. Thea

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The nurse gifts Roy, Oliver, and the others, against Thea's wishes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am not a doctor, nor am I a lawyer or anything. I am going into my freshman year of high school this fall. Everything I know about DNR and legal/medicinal stuff I found online and in TV. Sorry if it is inaccurate. I have no idea.

The doctors refused to take any part in Thea's condition, insisting they had to follow their patient's wishes. The only thing Roy could do was sit by and hope for a miracle. Her seizing had stopped, but now that the doctors had taken her off the machines, she was on limited time. 

He held his phone up to his ear waiting for Oliver to pick up with one hand and the other was tightly grasping Thea's, refusing to let her go. He breathed a sigh of relief when he heard the voice answer on the the other end of the line. 

"Oh, my gosh, Oliver!" 

"Roy, what's wrong? I just hung up with you not even five minutes ago."

"It's Thea, she starred seizing and everything happened so fast the doctors came in but they wouldn't help her and I don't know what to do Oliver I can't lose her and you can't either and she won't last off the machines but they won't put her back on!" Roy blurted at speeds that rivaled Felicity's ramblings or even the speed of Barry Allen. 

"Wait, what?" Oliver asked, confused. "Slow down, I have no idea what you just said."

Roy took in a deep breath and started again. "Thea started seizing, but the doctors wouldn't help her. They pulled her plug and won't put her back on!"

"What?!" Oliver roared. "Why?! They said they would keep her on until I was ready to take her off!"

"They found her file after you left. She was on a 'do not resuscitate' order."

"Since when? Who set that?"

"I don't know when, but she did, Oliver." Roy broke down in tears. "She set the order."

Oliver was silent on the other end. Roy couldn't tell if he was mad, scared, in shock, or upset. 

"Just please get here," Roy begged in a small voice. 

"We'll be there in about half an hour. Don't let her go."

"I won't. I promise."

A nurse came to the doorway just as Roy was hanging up the phone. 

"It's a miracle she's held on this long without the machines. She really is a fighter; I can see how you guys are able to do what you do every night."

She walked over to the bed a started plugging wires back into the outlets and quickly intubated Thea, forcing breath in and out of her uncooperative lungs. Roy sat confused while the woman hooked all the life support devices back into Thea's body. 

"I thought you wouldn't keep her on support because of the DNR order."

"Well we aren't supposed to, but we can keep her on for 72 hours in order for family to settle any last affairs. Family may not override the order, but we do what we can to make this easier. If that is possible," the nurse explained. 

"Thank you," Roy sobbed. "Thank you so much."

"This isn't permanent," she warned him. "She has three days, but once we take her off she is going to be going the same way as right now."

"At least her brother will be able to get here." 

"I'm sorry you didn't know about her wishes. Usually patients talk with their loved ones before making the decision."

"Her brother didn't even know," Roy said quietly. "She didn't tell anyone."

"I truest am sorry," the nurse said one more time before leaving the room, giving Thea three short days left to live, time she would spend laying motionless, while family and friends cried by her side.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... is that a little better? Not quite so panicky as last chapter.


	6. Thea

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oliver sees Thea, dreading the end of her countdown.

Oliver ran into the Emergency Room carrying Felicity, while Nyssa and John helped Dinah, Rene, and Quentin in behind them. Nyssa had been hesitant to stay and get checked, since she had no true identity in the real world, but she agreed after some convincing. 

They had been expecting them, thanks to Roy's heads up. A bed was already waiting for Felicity, and Oliver sat beside it after laying her down in it. 

"What are you doing here?" Felicity asked him, annoyed. 

"What do you mean?" He questioned, confused by her anger. 

"You shouldn't be here!"

Oliver was getting concerned. It wasn't like Felicity to act like this, but he wasn't getting her point. "What are you talking about? I'm with you, there's no other place for me to be."

"You need to go to Thea!" 

Thea. 

He was really trying to avoid seeing her. He knew that there wasn't much time to say goodbye, but it was too much for him to see his baby sister that way. Dying. 

"Oliver Jonas Queen," Felicity scolded, knowing what he was thinking. "You are going to go into that room, and you are going to sit by your sister's side. You are gong to hold her hand and tell her you love her, even if she will never hear you. You are going to share with her all your favorite memories of the two of you, and you are going to be with her for as long as you still can."

Oliver still hesitated, but reluctantly he got up and walked out of Felicity's room and to the ICU unit where Roy was still sitting by Thea's side. 

The younger man stood up shakily to meet Oliver. It was clear that he hadn't slept in days. 

"Hey, man," Roy greeted him. "How is everyone?"

"They'll be okay. But you should go home for a little bit. At least back to the loft or to the bunker. You look like a train wreck."

"Wow, thanks man." 

"Really though," Oliver said. "Get a shower and a few hours of sleep. I'll stay with her."

"You sure?"

"Yeah. I'm not leaving, and she'll still be here when you get back."

"Thanks, Oliver."

Roy left the unit, trudging out to the hallway, barely able to keep his head up. Oliver took to Felicity's instructions, and sat beside Thea, holding onto her hand. 

"Once when you were six, Laurel, Sara and I were tasked with babysitting you while our parents were out for the weekend," Oliver started. "Sara and I threw a huge rave in our downstairs, not even caring about where you would go. Laurel stayed upstairs with you in your room, keeping all the drunk and high teens from coming in and getting to you. Looking back on that now, I hate myself for leaving you and not even thinking of your safety. Laurel was always there for you. I may not have been the best brother growing up, but I need you to know that I love you a million times more than myself. And I would do anything to protect you. Heck, I would sell my soul again, and again to get you back. But I can't and you're leaving me here alone."

He burst into sobs and needed to leave to find a more private place to get his frustrations out, but he made a promise to Roy and to Felicity, and he couldn't leave his baby sister alone. Hours he sat by her side crying. Eventually Roy returned, and Nyssa and John came by to see her. 

All Oliver could think about was her ticking countdown, to the time when they would unplug.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was a little calmer than some others that have gone up.


	7. 13 hours

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thea has 13 hours left, and everyone stays by her side, no matter their difficulty.

13 hours. 

That's how much time Thea had before they unplugged her. 

13 hours before the brave, strong, fearless, red-clad vigilante of Star City died. 

13 hours before the name Speedy would only become a painful reminder. 

13 hours until Oliver became an only child. 

In that time Oliver sat by her side, John next to him offering his silent support. Lyla sat on the other side of John, and Roy and Quentin sat across from the three others. Thea had helped Quentin so much after Laurel died, and he felt awful that he could help her here. 

Some time in the past day, William had been discharged, and he was sitting next to Oliver, staring at his Aunt Thea, whom he knew he would never get to know.

Rene had gone home to be with Zoe. After getting back and being given a clean bill of health, Oliver had sent him home to see his daughter. 

Felicity was in her own room, and despite her protests, the doctors wouldn't let her leave. She insisted that if they just gave her a wheelchair she would be able to get along fine, but they wouldn't buy it. They insisted she had to stay as an inpatient until they could figure out what to do with her spine and the now useless implant. Dinah was keeping her company, and she occasionally went to the ICU and came back with updates for Felicity. 

After hours of just sitting by Thea's side and wondering where to go and what to do next, the group looked up at the sound of a familiar voice. 

"How is she?"

Felicity rolled into the unit and parked a wheelchair at the foot of Thea's wire covered bed and Dinah came up behind her.

"What are you doing up? I thought the doctors weren't letting you leave?" John asked.

"They didn't. Dinah brought me a wheelchair from the hallway." 

"Aren't they going to catch you out?" Roy questioned. "It's hard to overlook a patient who is completely bedridden and paralysed, just coming off an island that was totally blown up. Also you're a vigilante. Another thing that's hard to miss."

"Well for now I'm here and I'm not planning on leaving quite yet," Felicity insisted. 

Roy and Quentin cleared room for Felicity to wheel her chair in, and she parked herself right by Thea's head. 

Stroking her hair softly, tears rolled down Felicity's face. All she could think of was that if she had looked back and helped Thea when she fell if tripped, that she might be okay. Curtis and Samantha were gone too, and Felicity was horrified by the fact that she might have been able to help them but didn't. She wasn't sure if there was anything she could have done, but the possibility haunted her. 

"I'm sorry, Thea," she apologized quietly. 

Two nurses came running over to the bed, and both sighed with relief when they laid their eyes on Felicity. 

"Told you they would find you," Roy whispered to her. 

"Miss Smoak, we had no idea where you were. You aren't supposed to be down here," one said. 

"I'm sorry, but I couldn't wait around in my room not knowing—" Felicity stopped, nodded over toward Thea's still body. 

They nodded in understanding. One started to walk over to take her back to her room, but the other stopped her. 

"I'll allow you to stay here for the remaining time, if you agree to have us check on you every half hour. If we feel like something is going wrong, we are at liberty to take you back to your room immediately."

Felicity nodded, surprised at their agreement, but she greed anyway and turned back to Thea, combing through her hair with her fingers and wondering how long Thea could hold on after they pulled the plug, and where Felicity herself would go now that she was paralyzed again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... not too much happened in this chapter, but next chapter will be really emotional, probably.


	8. Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time's up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I got a request for more Nyssa, so I hope this good. Also gather tissues.

1 hour. 

Thea had one hour left. 

Oliver was an emotional wreck. No one had ever seen him cry so hard for such extended periods of time. Not when Sara died the second time, not when his mom died, not when Tommy died, not even when Laurel died. Nobody could comfort him. 

Lyla had gone home to take care of JJ and Dinah had gone back to her apartment, but everyone else remained at the bed. 

Felicity had kept the doctors from sending her back to her own room, and although hey were all exhausted from he hours of sleeplessness, no one dared leave, savoring their last chances with the younger Queen. 

"Oliver?" A voice came from behind them, making them all jump. 

Nyssa was standing by the group, dressed in a casual pair of dark jeans and a leather jacket. 

"Oh, Nyssa! You scared me, I didn't see or hear you coming!"

"Yeah, well Heir to the Demon and the former Demon's Head myself," she said solemnly. No one could tell if it was a serious or sarcastic comment, though either way it was true. 

"What are you doing back here? I thought you said hospitals weren't your scene."

"I didn't know your sister well, but you were willing to give up your soul for her. Without my father attempting to murdering her, the circumstances of our friendship would never have occurred. The least I can do is visit with her and be here for you."

"Thank you."

Nyssa pulled up a chair and sat at the door of the bed, not saying another word. 

For the next hour they sat silently, with the occasional sob breaking the quiet, but no other sounds disturbing the terrible peace of the Intensive Care Unit. 

Three nurses and a doctor came in when the time had run out, and asked if all but family could leave for the remaining time. They protested, but in the end only Oliver, Felicity, John, and Roy ended up being allowed to stay. 

Before they were ushered out, Nyssa pulled Oliver aside and gave him a tight embrace. Oliver was surprised, Nyssa wasn't usually the touchy-feely type, but he accepted and reciprocated the gesture gratefully. 

Pulling away and holding Oliver in front of her by his shoulders, Nyssa looked right into his puffy red eyes. "I'm sorry I don't have anything to save her this time. I would give it to you in a heartbeat if I did."

Oliver shook his head. "It's okay. Thea wouldn't want all that. She was ready for something like this to happen."

Oliver hadn't really thought about it before, but Nyssa was always there to help him save Thea. First with the Lazurus Pit when Ra's killed her. And then when her bloodlust nearly killed her from the suppression she provided him with the Elixir to wake Thea up from the coma. 

Nyssa had always been there. 

She turned away and following the others out of the unit, and Oliver went back to the bed. Sitting beside Felicity's wheelchair, she reached out and squeezed his hand. John and Roy sat on the other side, just barely making enough room for the nurses to come over to do their task. 

"Thea," Roy whispered. "Please hold on. You can make it. Please."

Ventilator off. 

She wasn't brain dead, so there was still hope, but it was a slim chance. Thea was officially on her own, and her body was instinctively fighting to keep going, but when she set the DNR order, her mind had already given up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... how was it?


	9. Dinah and William

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dinah and William need some company.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I thought that I would cover some other people outside of he hospital... here we go!

Technically, William was allowed to stay in the unit, being Thea's nephew and falling into the family category, but Oliver knew he had seen enough death for a lifetime. 

Dinah took him back to her house, but after they both showered and changed into clean clothes they left again. 

They stood outside the door of an apartment on the other side of the city, waiting for the door to open. After a minute it did, Rene on the other side holding a gun at the guests in anticipation of the worst. 

"Hey," Dinah said, holding up her hands as a show of an alliance, and Rene breathed a sigh of relief and welcomed her and William through the door.

"Sorry about that," he apologized. "I'm just a little on-edge."

"That's fine. I think we all are."

"What can I do for you?"

"I just didn't want to be alone. Oliver, Felicity, Dig, and Roy were the only ones allowed to stay when they pulled Thea's plug, so I have Willaim now, and I just didn't really know what to do," Dinah explained.

"I was allowed to stay, but Oliver-- I mean, my dad, didn't want me to see it," William added.

Rene and Dinah both nodded, and he lead them into his living room, and they sat on the couches.

"Daddy? Who is here?" A young girl poked her head around the corner. 

"Zoe, this is Dinah and William. Dinah is friend from work, and William is the son of another friend. They need some company and somewhere to stay for a little while."

Zoe waved shyly, and gave the pair a small smile.

"You guys get some rest, I'm sure you haven't gotten a whole lot in the hospital."

Rene led Zoe out through the hallway where she came in and they left Dinah and William to get some sleep.

Dinah laid down and fell asleep pretty quickly, but William lay awake on the couch, thinking of what he could have had if he grew up with his dad.

After what seemed like forever, William gave up on sleeping and got up to explore the small apartment in search of his father's friends.

Zoe was nowhere to be found, but he stumbled across Rene in the kitchen making pancakes on the stove. 

"I hope you like pancakes," he commented to the younger boy, who gave a small smile of appreciation. 

A few moments of awkward silence followed, until William asked about one of the things that had been bothering him for a while. 

"Did you know my aunt?"

Rene looked up with surprise. Out of everything that had happened he was surprised that that was William's first question, but it made sense, wondering about the family member he watched as she died, unsure of what she was like.

"Not very well. I only met her a few times when we were in the bunker where your dad-- the Green Arrow-- and the rest of the team worked out of. Other than that it was just in passing around the office when we worked with your dad in the mayor's office."

William looked a little disappointed, and Rene felt bad that he couldn't give the boy more information. 

"I didn't know her personally very well," Rene added. "But around this city she was known as Speedy. Ever heard of her?"

"She was a vigilante too?"

"She was amazing. She had her moments, she was manipulated quite a bit to do terrible things, but that never stopped her. She had no fear. Inherited the red from Roy, the second vigilante of this city."

"Was he the other man there when we got there?"

"Yeah, that's him."

"I wish I got to meet her," William said quietly. 

"I'm sorry that I can't tell you too much about her. I've only worked with our dad for about a year, and she wasn't around too much in that time. If you want to know more about her, ask your dad, Felicity, or John. They knew her the best," Rene recommended. 

Rene piled a few pancakes on a plate and set them in front of William. 

"Here you go," he said. 

"Thank you," William said gratefully as he dug into the food. 

Rene left the boy to himself and called Oliver to check up on Thea. When he didn't pick up he tried John. 

"Hey, Rene," John answered tiredly on the other end. "What's up?"

"Just checking up, how is she?"

"Still holding on. She is quite the fighter. She's been off life support for hours and still isn't letting go."

"That's good. Dinah and William are at my place, so I'm going to go, but keep us posted."

"Will do," John said before hanging up. 

Rene sat down on the couch across from where Dinah was sleeping, and covered his face with his hands. That could have been him. Dying, leaving his daughter an orphan, right back into the foster care system. 

That could have been him, but it wasn't. It was Thea Queen, slowly fading away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what you think!


	10. Dark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Within Thea's coma it is all darkness.

Within Thea's coma, all was darkness. The pitch black and silence of nearing death loomed over her. At the time when she had set the Do Not Resuscitate order she had known that if anything like this had happened it was likely that she wouldn't survive. 

She was okay with that. 

She had lived a life. 

Quite the extraordinary life, saving people every night and still going out and living like any other normal person during the day. 

Working alongside her brother, often at night and during the day, and with him he brought the people who had given her a new meaning of family. 

She and Laurel had always been close, but working with her as Speedy and Black Canary gave their relationship a whole new meaning. They had been there for each other more than ever when both their siblings supposedly died on the Gambit, and from there they grew closer and closer. Laurel's death left her broken, but she knew that her friend would want her to continue her life. However short that life may prove to be. 

Even before Thea found out that Oliver was Star City's most famous vigilante, she knew that John and Felicity were something special to her brother, especially Felicity. Once he truth came out, everything became all so clear. The two of them helped her so much in her hornet to becoming a vigilante and getting over her bloodlust and her drugged killing of Sara. They were always there for her. 

Her father had just died to save her. The land mine should have ended her then and there, but with his sacrifice she only lived long enough to get blown sky high by another explosion. It was something at least, a little more time with the fight, a true demonstration of Malcolm's once hated love. 

Quentin, Dinah, and Rene were great friends through the years she had known them, and their friendship was a huge companionship in times when she was feeling low. 

She still didn't know where her nephew and his mother were. They had never found William on the island, and when Samantha had run off to look for him, Thea had followed. She couldn't let the woman go off on her own, but once they were separated from the group and the explosions started, Thea only saw the one in front of her go off, launching Samantha into the sky before she flew up in the air herself, the heat of the bomb burning her back. 

Then there were Roy and Oliver. They had been there when no one else was. Roy had saved her from a direction which likely would have ended with her overdosing or in another DUI accident. Roy saved her from that, and she saved him from a life of crime. And there was Oliver. Her big brother, even if he wasn't always the greatest growing up, and all those years he was gone, but he was more than she ever could have asked for. He sold his own soul to give her life again, at a time where she wasn't ready to leave the earth. This time she was ready. She had prepared herself for this, and knew that the road would come along eventually. 

She knew it was her time. 

She was ready. 

That's when she heard them. It was distant. Like through the other end of a tunnel, echoing and difficult to make out. She pulled her consciousness toward the source of the noise, until they formed words. 

It was Oliver, Roy, Felicity, and John. Talking to her, to each other, to themselves. Begging her not to leave. 

It was at that moment that Thea realized that even if she was ready to die, her friends and family weren't ready for her to move on. 

And that was when Thea decided that to give in to the approaching darkness would be the ultimate act of selfishness.

She had to pull through. For them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Things might be starting to look up for our little Queen! ;)


	11. Hope

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team receives the tiniest bit of hope.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry it took me so long to update. My life has been really crazy!

After five days of sitting by Thea's bedside waiting and dreading the moment her fight ran out, the small group was exhausted. They were used to getting minimal sleep from their vigilante duties at night, but his was more than usual, and almost as taxing. 

The tears had stopped falling, only total defeat and regret remained. 

They knew that her fight had to be giving out at any moment, but as the hours dragged on and she kept on breathing, hope began to build up in their chests. 

By the sixth day, a nurse came by to check on her condition, and gasped in amazement. 

"What is it?" Oliver said, jumping up, thinking that something was wrong. 

"She was supposed to die days ago. And she kept holding on, but... but now her vitals are increasing."

"That's not funny!" Roy freaked out, thinking it was some sick joke. There was no possible way for her to leave the coma she was stuck in, other than through the door of death. 

"I'm not joking."

The nurse called over a few doctors and they all looked at her vitals in astonishment. 

John stood up and pulled the sheets out of her hands.

"Let me see this," he demanded. 

After scanning over the pages, his eyes widened and the tiniest sliver of a smile stretched across his face. 

"You guys have to see this," he said, beckoning to Oliver and Roy, who jumped up from their chairs by Thea's bedside and looked over John's shoulder. 

"Let me see!" Felicity said from the other side of the bed. She glanced over the medical report, not fully understanding them, but getting enough to know that the nurse was telling the truth. 

"It's a miracle," the nurse said, smiling at them. 

"Thea Queen does not seem to have any shortness on those," one doctor, Terry, commented suspiciously, looking over her past records. "When she was born, there were a lot of complications, but those were solved in explainable, medical, scientific ways. But in the past two years she has been in three different situations where she should have died but has had some miraculous but unexplainable recoveries."

"You seem like you have a problem with that," John said, a challenge deep in his voice. 

"Well maybe I do. Two years ago Miss Queen here was stabbed in the chest. She was brought in, eventually stabilized, but should never have woken up. Then you and your little club took her somewhere, and next thing I know I am seeing her walk down the street like nothing ever happened. Then the next time, a year ago, she went into a coma with some odd infected wound opening up completely on its own. Again, no possible way she would wake up. Then you took her again, and eventually same thing. And now this time you didn't take her anywhere, but she has gone from a 2% chance of waking up to around a 62% chance of survival. It certainly isn't guaranteed, but it is far more than any other person gets. What's your secret? What miracles are you hiding from us, keeping to yourself?"

"I'll tell you," Oliver growled, seething. "The first time, she was stabbed by the head of the League of Assassins. They have something there, called the Lazarus Pit, that can bring people back to life. I sold my soul to the League in order to save her, but it wasn't until after I returned that we realized the Pit had some unforeseen side effects. Thea was cursed with the need to take life until she killed the person who first killed her, and by that time Ra's Al Ghul was already dead. So my little sister was stuck with this curse for a year, in that time she learned to control the bloodlust, but that's when we realized that when she resisted against the bloodlust, the effects of the Pit would reverse. That's when that wound opened up and she went into another coma. A friend of ours, who also happened to be the daughter of the man who killed Thea in the first place, had access to an exilir called the Lotus, which woke Thea up and cured her of her bloodlust."

"And why won't you share this Lotus or the Pit with the world? I know so many people who have lost or are losing family members who would have been so grateful for that opportunity," the angry doctor cut in. 

"Did you miss the part where I said the Pit gave Thea an uncontrollable urge to kill? She told me herself that she wouldn't wish that feeling upon her worst enemy. And besides, the Pit was destroyed and the Lotus is gone," Oliver tried to explain without losing his temper. 

"Okay, so maybe you got lucky with these things in the past, but how can you explain this one? You haven't taken her anywhere and you haven't done anything to her."

"I don't know," Oliver admitted. They had truly thought that this was the end. There was nothing else they could have done for her. But here they were, having this conversation. 

"We'll add this to the list of Thea Queen's ridiculous amount of inexplainable miracles," Terry grumbled. 

Oliver stood up, seething, no longer bothering to contain his anger. "You think my sister doesn't deserve to live?" He challenged. 

"I'm saying that maybe your sister has gotten her chance, and others might deserve that too."

A nurse stood up and pulled Terry back, and a small hand reached up and pulled Oliver down. In the heat of his anger he hadn't even noticed her cross around to the other side of the bed next to him. 

The nurse pulled Terry out of the ICU, and another came to the bedside. 

"I'm sorry about that," she apologized. "This is by no means an excuse, but his 8 year old daughter is dying from a rare form of leukemia. He would do anything to make her better."

The team was silent after that, and the nurse walked to the edge of the unit and brought back another doctor. Terry was still nowhere to be seen. 

"Okay, now that Miss Queen here has a higher chance of waking up, there are a few things we have to do," the nurse started. "When you brought her into the ER, we were mainly focusing on keeping her alive and stabilized. She has quite a few broken bones that need resetting, and since that she might actually wake up, we need to do that now."

"How many?" John asked. 

"Eight bones, but a few of them are broken in more than one place. Her left collarbone is in three pieces, both her wrists are broken, three of her vertebra, her left femur is totally cracked in two, and her left kneecap has been shattered. She will probably need surgery, at least for her knee, but that might have to wait until she is doing better. It seems like she was hit nearly dead on by an explosive, she is very lucky to be alive at all."

Felicity looked straight at Oliver. "Samantha ran into the woods looking for William and Thea ran after her. They could have been hit by the same explosive."

"It has been quite a while since the explosion, if I'm remembering correctly?"

"She was brought in a little less than a week after, and that was about three weeks ago," Oliver confirmed. 

"So in that time her bones have probably healed in all the wrong positions, so we'll have to rebreak them in order to set them properly. We are going to roll her to an X-ray room to find how they grew back together and where we need to rebreak. We'll deal with her knee when it is safe enough to perform the surgery. 

The nurses and doctors wheeled the bed out of the ICU, carrying the IV lines with it, leaving their patient's family with enough hope to continue through the wait.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry to say that unless I get another chapter done in the next few days (which probably won't happen because I really need to update my other fics) then this might be the last chapter for a little while. I'm starting high school next week, and I'm playing water polo and I'm in marching band, so I won't have as much free time as usual. I'll update as much as I can, but just so you know it might not happen very often. As soon as water polo season is over I'll be more free to write, because I don't play another sport until spring.


	12. Thea

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well hey I finally finished this one on the bus home from a water polo tournament an hour and a half away, but I didn't post it until today because I wanted to proofread when I wasn't falling asleep.

The days grew into weeks, and almost a month after Thea's prognosis improved, her hand squeezed back in Oliver's grasp. 

His heart leapt into his throat, and his head jerked up to look at his sister. Her eyes squinted open in the brightness of the ICU lights. 

"Thea!"

"Hey, Ollie," she croaked, and tears sprung into Oliver's eyes.

"You woke up. You really woke up," he whispered over and over, jumping up to kiss her forehead. "What were you thinking? How could you do that to me? Why wouldn't you at least tell us?"

"I'm sorry," she whispered, her throat so dry from months of silence. "I-- I just couldn't keep living like this. Back and forth between life and death. I decided it would be better to stay dead someday. I guess it isn't that day yet."

"Please talk to us before you ever do something like that again. And please take off the order. With our line of work injuries like this happen frequently. Something a doctor could easily fix shouldn't be the cause of your death."

Thea nodded, though she was only half listening to Oliver's lecture. "Why am I still alive?"

"When I first brought you they put you right on life support, and I went back to look for everyone else. Roy was with you when we almost lost you and they found your file and tried to pull you off. Policy allowed them to keep you on for three more days. After that they pulled your plug. John, Felicity, Roy, and I have been with you ever since. You just kept fighting through."

"Roy was here?" 

"Yeah, Speedy. He came. Everyone did, until the three days ran out and only me, John, Felicity, and Roy were allowed to stay. I sent all three of them home last night to sleep."

She only smiled, still so tired and weak, until she started to remember the series of events that had gotten her into the hospital in the first place. 

"Ollie! I ran after Samantha, I don't know what happened to anyone else, but she got hit by one of the explosions!" she panicked.

Oliver pushed her back in the bed, trying to calm her. "I know, Speedy, I know. She's gone."

She stopped struggling up and fell back in defeat. "Anyone else?" 

"Just Curtis from the team. Felicity's implant was damaged, she hasn't been able to use her legs since. I have no idea about Slade, Evelyn, Black Siren, or Talia and her army."

"I'm sorry," she whispered.

"For what?"

"That I couldn't have done more." 

"You did as much as you could. We all did," Oliver reassured her. 

Tears formed in the corners of her eyes, and she tried to wipe them away with her hand only to discover the casts on both her wrists and the cast across her shoulder, back, and upper arm, all greatly restricting her movement. 

"How bad is it?"

Oliver frowned, gently taking one of Thea's wrapped hands. "It's pretty bad," he admitted. "Both wrists and three vertebra broken, left femur cracked in two pieces, left collarbone in three. They reset all those, but you also shattered your left kneecap. They have to do surgery, but they wanted to wait until you woke up."

"It hurts."

"I know, Speedy."

They just sat there for awhile, Oliver gently stroking her short hair.

"You've been out for almost two months," Oliver told her after a while of silence.

"Darn, I didn't beat Barry in the longest coma game," Thea muttered with a slight chuckle, which made Oliver laugh.

"I'm sure he would be thrilled to find that he won this most ridiculous game."

At that moment a nurse walked over and greeted them, and immediately began running tests and checking Thea's vitals. 

"We're going to give you about a week or two to build up more strength and continue to heal before we perform the surgery on your knee," she informed them.

"What are you going to have to do?" Oliver asked, mostly for Thea to hear. 

"We'll decide within the next week, but with the extent of the break, our best option may have to be to completely replace it. It isn't easy to repair shattered bones, especially one like the patella, or the knee cap."

She left them together after that, and Oliver pulled out his phone.

"I think it's time the others knew that you were up. They'll be mad if I wait to tell them any longer."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay! This is probably the first happy chapter of this entire fic. It might get a little happier for a little bit after this, but I have a really angsty idea that I'm definitely going to use. Hope you liked it!


	13. Hi, Roy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was really short, and it didn't quite play out in words the way I envisioned it (I plan out all my writing in a movie sort of way, and then put it into words from there). But here you go.

Roy had barely gotten into Thea's loft when he collapsed on the couch and fell fast asleep. It had been days upon days since he had last slept, and even though he desperately wanted to take a shower and wash off the reek of hospital, but his eyelids couldn't hold themselves up and he barely made it home without falling asleep behind the wheel. 

Waking up 11 hours later feeling awful and cramped after spending the night on the couch, he stumbled into the bathroom to shower and freshen up. Feeling the hot water slid over him was one of the most refreshing feelings, and after getting out and changing into one of his old t shirts and pair of jeans that he found still in Thea's closet. Finally sitting don at the table to eat, his phone started ringing bach in Thea's room. 

Groaning, he ran to pick it up, assuming that it was his job back home asking when he would be returning, but when the caller ID told him that it was Oliver, he answered it quickly.

"Roy, it's Thea," Oliver said as soon as he picked up. 

"No, Ollie. No, no, no," Roy shook his head in denial, taking Oliver's words the wrong way.

"Roy, calm down," Oliver quieted him.

"But Thea--"

But then her voice came through the phone, the most beautiful sound he could have hoped to hear.

"Hi, Roy."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tell me what you think. Hope you liked it!


	14. Surgery

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thea has her surgery, and Oliver and Felicity finally get a break from the hospital.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry updates are so few and far between, I'm hoping to maybe start wrapping this up by the time the new season starts!(?)

As the first week passed by, the nurses only allowed the four who had stayed with Thea into the ICU to visit. 

She talked a little on the phone with the others, mostly Quentin, but other than that Thea did a lot of sleeping. The doctors kept her on a lot of pain medication, without it any movement sent her knee into excruciating pain. The medicines made her extremely drowsy, so she wasn't up for as much interaction with any of her four visitors as she would have wanted. She wanted to make up for scaring them with keeping the DNR a secret, and she realized while in the darkness of her coma that they needed her more than she had realized.

Felicity had been forced back to her room for a few more days, but they soon decided that there was no point in keeping her holed up in the hospital, and discharged her. John brought her old wheelchair from the bunker so she could get used to using her own again, and she rolled up and down the floor of the ICU to practice, resting beside Thea's bed when she was awake. There was no point in her going home, it was no longer proofed to her needs. 

By the end of the first week the doctors decided that she was ready enough for the surgery. 

It was routine, the doctors had done it hundreds of times, they specialized in that type of surgery, but after everything that had happened in the past few weeks the idea of his sister going into surgery stressed Oliver out. 

When the doctors came out after about three hours, Oliver jumped up, half expecting bad news after the years of misfortune. 

"She is doing well," the doctor told him, and he breathed a sigh of relief. He, Roy, and Felicity followed the doctor back to Thea's room, where she was just waking up. 

"Hey, Speedy," Oliver said quietly, sitting in the seat beside the bed and Felicity and Roy joined on the opposite side. 

"Ow," was all that Thea could manage. 

The nurse brought her pain medication and ice for the knee, and after talking for a little while, she fell back asleep. 

Roy stayed with Thea and insisted that Oliver and Felicity went back either to the bunker or the loft. 

He drove her back in his car, carrying in her out off her wheelchair and into the passenger seat, and back out when they reached the loft. The ride was silent, but she intertwined her fingers into his in between them. 

Getting into more comfortable clothing right when they got back, Oliver carried her to the bed they used to share, and was about to leave the room and sleep in the guest room to give her space and privacy, when he heard her call out to him. 

"Oliver?"

"Yes?"

"Will you stay with me?" She asked, her voice small and vulnerable. 

"I will always stay with you," he promised, climbing in bed beside her and holding her close, warming the cold of fear and unknown looming over both of them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (I love comments!!)


	15. Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They can finally go home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I had planed to have this finish by the time the season 6 premiere airs, but I feel like that really isn't going to happen. 
> 
> TWO WEEKS, GUYS (AND GIRLS)!! WE ARE ALMOST THERE!!!!!

By the end of the next week, the doctors had finally decided that Thea was healed enough to go home. 

Her leg strapped in a stiff splint to keep her knee and upper leg straight, she was wheeled out in a wheelchair and helped into the car by Roy, while Oliver helped Felicity in. The ride home was nearly silent, Felicity holding Oliver's hand in the front seat, and Thea turned with her leg stretched out over Roy's lap next to her. 

The four of them were staying together in the loft that had swapped ownership among the Queens for years. Between Felicity no longer being able to live on her own, Thea with all her injuries, and the fact that Roy had no where to stay in Star City, they decided it would be easiest for all of them to stay together and help each other out. Thankfully the crime of the city had been quiet lately, though they knew their peace would only last so long. 

Riding up the elevator and walking/rolling into the loft, all four of them let go of a deep breath no one realized they had all been holding. They had dodged paparazzi the whole way home, and news crews swarming them on the way in from the car to the building where the loft was. Everyone wanted to put out the first stories on the mayor's newest relationship status with Felicity Smoak, why the former CEO was back in a wheelchair, the youngest Queen's medical condition, and all of the drama of their kidnappings and escapes. Doing their best to keep their heads down and their mouths shut, the four made a mad dash through the crowds to their escape. 

Being home, no matter in what condition, was a relief. Helping the two women from their wheelchairs onto the couch, they all sat down in exhaustion and turned on the T.V. mounted on the wall, only to see their own faces emblazoned on the screen.

"Great, as if we don't already have enough eyes on us just for being the family of the mayor, we now have stories on us on every local channel on T.V.," Felicity groaned. "This is going to make Arrow-ing just a little bit harder."

Oliver shrugged his shoulders. "I was all in the eye of the public when I first returned from the island when my crusade started. I managed well enough then."

"Ollie, there are a lot more of us now than there were then. And we are all under close surveillance of the media," Thea reminded him.

"We'll make do."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it's Short, between my busy schedules and crazy writers block, it's the most I could crank out.


	16. A/N

Hey y’all! 

We made it! We finally made it to the premiere!!! I’m very proud of all of us! ;) (if you don’t have cable like me you can watch it on the CW app the day after it airs.) 

So originally I was going to finish this by the time the new season started, but it has gone father and expanded more than I had planned. I'm going to keep writing this, but from this point out it will be mostly canon divergent as of the end of season 5.

Okay. So I'm now I've gotta rant about the badass season six premiere. 

IF YOU HAVE NOT YET SCENE THE SEASON SIX PREMIERE DO NOT READ THE FOLLOWING NOTE. 

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

 

 

 

 

Okay, so if you are still reading I dearly hope you have seen the episode, because if you have not you are about to hear all about it.

Okay I'm not going to go through the entire episode because that would take forever, but I'm going to go through the points that I found most important or impactful.

 

\- Black Freaking Siren!!!!!! Katie Cassidy is an amazing actress, I loved her as Laurel (rip pretty bird), and I've loved her as Siren. She is absolutely amazing (and also gorgeous)!!!

\- RIP Samantha, although literally everyone saw it coming. Poor William, he seems to be really struggling.

\- Speaking of William, I am very excited to see how the relationship between him and Oliver expands. The episode where William calls Oliver "Dad" I will cry shamelessly. 

\- Thank God I was wrong about Curtis!!!!!!!! Whew, what a relief. I was kind of worried that he wouldn't make it, but in the Flash episode when Cisco said that he had spoken with both Curtis and Felicity about his idea for the thing, I got really happy because that's how I figured out that the two of them survived.

\- Also speaking of Felicity, I was incorrect about the implant as well, so that's some good news there. 

\- And Oliver and Felicity starting to work their crap out, about freaking time. The writers better not screw up the way they did last time. Use this second chance wisely. 

\- This is completely irrelevant but Take on The World by You and Me at Six is a really good song. Sorry, that just came on my Spotify playlist and wanted to comment on it.It kind of makes me think of Olicity.

\- Anyway... 

\- Quentin!! Agh my poor baby. (haha. my "poor baby" haha. He's 34 years older than me. smh. I'm a strange human being.) So like I was saying, poor Quentin, his storyline is already so good. I'm really excited to see how the rest of his season goes.

\- Is Nyssa alive??? I must know!! So when Slade told Oliver about Thea, he said “Ra’s al Ghul’s daughter went looking for the girl in the cage.” So the girl in the cage is obviously Evelyn, but Ra’s had two daughters on the island. Was it Talia or Nyssa who went looking for Evelyn? Neither of them were confirmed dead or alive. I need to know that Nyssa is okay!!!!!!!

\- And poor John!!! It seems like he was injured in the blast but placed it off as a minor thing because he thought that some of others were worse off than him. It also looks like he has some sort of PTSD or something like it. 

\- And I was right about Thea!!!!! Oh my goodness I was so scared! It seemed for most of the episode that they were trying to make it seem like Thea was dead, and I totally fell for it. I'm really glad she's not dead, or I would have been really mad at the writers. Guggenheim (I think it was him) said that as long as he is a part of Arrow then Thea will never get killed off, so I got really angry and scared for a while. But she has at this point been in a coma for 5 months, not 2 like in this fic, and she's more than halfway to tieing with Barry. But at least she isn't dead.

\- So that's all I can think of for now. Yeah.

 

 

 

So anyway, I have another chapter completed, I'll post it later today, and like I said, this fic will continue as canon divergent until I either finish it or give up. Hopefully the former and not the latter. 

Thanks for reading, and happy Arrow-ing until the next episode!!


	17. Mess

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They were a mess. But they would clean themselves up together.

It was a long time since John had gotten nightmares from the stuff he did with Oliver and the rest of the team. He had gotten used to the dangers they faced, and when he did have strange or frightening dreams, they would have faded by the time he had gotten up asks rubbed the sleep from his eyes. 

That changed after the explosion of the island. 

He got many that he had died and was watching on as Oliver had to tell Lula and JJ that he was gone, and watching his son grow up without a father and his wife grow old without a husband. 

Others were that his wife and son were with them on Lian Yu and had died in the explosion. 

But most of them were that instead of turning back and picking Felicity up and carrying her to the bunker when she fell and her implant got fried, he left her there to be thrown sky high by an explosive. 

Or that he had seen Thea be thrown into the air by a bomb, and could have saved her from all the terrible she was now facing, but didn't. 

Or that Rene, or Dinah, or Quentin had been left behind and killed. 

Or that he could have saved Curtis or Samantha but didn't. 

And those terrified him. 

One night he awoke in the darkness of his and Lyla's bedroom, plagued by the terrors of the night. 

Turning over gently in bed, so as to not wake Lyla, he checked his phone. 

2:57 A.M. 

Sighing, he rolled carefully out from under the blankets and got dressed, slipping out the door and through the front, leaving a quick note to Lyla to explain where he was going. 

Driving through the city, light from streetlights and full time service stores splitting the darkness. Headlights of the car cut through the bit of night that had not been illuminated by the surrounding city brightness. 

Pulling into the small parking lot that he had parked at so often, riding the elevator up to the top, and using his key to open the front door. 

It took a moment for his eyes to adjust to the dark room, and nearly as soon as they had he felt an arm wrap roughly around his neck, flipping him over onto the ground. Oliver's defensive face came into view in the dark, shock and confusion showing on his face as he realized who he had just pinned to the floor of the loft. 

"Oliver?" Felicity's voice rang softly from up the stairs. "What was that?" 

"Crap," Oliver whispered. "I'm sorry, I thought-- I didn't know who it was."

"It's fine. I get it."

"Oliver!" Felicity's said again in a hushed voice. "Who is that?"

"It's me, Fliss," John said.

"Oh, hey, John."

After helping Felicity down the stairs and onto the couch, the three of them sat together in silence, each of them with a glass of Russian vodka in hand. 

"You okay?" Oliver eventually asked John, remembering that he had showed up at his house unannounced in the middle of the night.

"I'm sure I will be," he mumbled. "Sometime. It's just-- the nightmares. The regret, and fear, thinking of what I could have done and what if I had done things differently and what if we hadn't saved everyone we did?"

"I get it. I've been getting it for years."

A scream suddenly split the air, and Oliver ran to the room where Thea and Roy were sleeping to find his sister shaking in bed, Roy quickly jumping up to comfort and calm her. 

"Speedy? You okay?" 

Thea nodded, now sitting up with the help of Roy. The bulky casts on her wrists and shoulder made her diminutive form seem nearly twice its normal size. They would be coming off in the next week, and Thea could hardly wait. 

"Nightmares," she mumbled, trying to brush a strand of hair off her sweating face with her stiff casted hand. 

"Yeah, I know. John's here too. Same deal."

Roy and Oliver helped Thea into the living room with the others, where they sat in silence for a long time, before Felicity let out a laugh filled with hysteria.

“Look at us!” She laughed, filling the room with confusion. “What are we doing?”

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t really know. We’re sitting here in silence, wallowing in our own terrors and pain and regrets, and not even thinking about what we could be doing!”

Her sudden moment of hysteria passed almost as quickly as it had come, and she dropped her head onto Oliver’s shoulder, letting out a quiet half-sob. 

“We’re a mess.”

But their mess was alive, and that was more than they had expected all those months ago when the explosions started. It was as much as they could ask for. 

They would clean themselves up together.

**Author's Note:**

> I haven't yet decided if this is going to be multi-chapter or if I'm just going to stop here. I guess it's quite the cliffhanger. Let me know what you want me to do.


End file.
